Maruthancode G. David Milton: Thankfully, the poorer castes understood that the repeated references to jungle raj was the NDA’s way of showing their resentment over the empowerment of the less endowed castes (Is the Chai Cutting Enough?, Nov 9). Whatever else be said about Laloo’s reign, it gave the depressed castes the courage and dignity to stand up for themselves. It’s awful that a party in power at the Centre was so bankrupt of ideas that it had to seek votes midway by invoking crackers bursting in Pakistan. Biharis have shown today that they are as politically aware as anyone else and that they care as deeply about social dignity as ‘development’.
Noida Adal I.T.: The Bihar BJP did two things that inflicted heavy injuries to itself, first celebrating the anniversary of Brahmeshwar Singh Mukhiya, Bhumihar feudal and Ranvir Sena architect responsible for the massacre of Dalits, as ‘martyr day’. The second was touting Dr C.P. Thakur, a strong patron of the killer brigade, as a CM candidate. Even the most fanatical non-Bhumihar BJP supporter would have had second thoughts about the party after that.
Lucknow M.C. Joshi: Analysts were saying that the Bihar results would decide the future course of the country’s economy. It now looks like it will decide the future of the country’s politics as well. The NDA’s defeat is a huge setback for Modi and Shah and they have no one to blame but their own strategists.
Ambala R.D. Singh: It’s not too late for course correction for Messrs Modi & Co. For one, they have to now equivocally show that the government is independent of the RSS. Two, Modi should realise he is the PM of the country, and hence cannot behave like local-level politicians even when campaigning.
Lachung Kahlar: Forget Modi’s ruin, this election is lose-lose for Nitish Kumar too. The RJD can’t change its spots, hooliganism and corruption are in its DNA. The only winner is Laloo, for this win will completely rejuvenate his party.
Visakhapatnam D.L. Narayan: India is not Bihar. There is a reason why it is India’s most backward state. The mahagathbandhan’s win is merely the triumph of obscurantist forces which have a vested interest in ensuring Bihar remains so. The loss is the people’s entirely.
Dallas Anwaar: The way Modi and Amit Shah had fanned communal divisions in Bihar, it was obvious that they had lost all confidence in the drawing power of their development agenda and therefore used the Hindutva card as a last resort. Hopefully now that it hasn’t worked in Bihar, there will probably be less communal tension and riots before every election.
On e-mail Pradeep Mathur: Nitish could implement his development agenda in his last two stints as CM. But he might not be as successful this time with an antagonistic government at the Centre. The Delhi government’s relations with the Centre are a case in point.
New Delhi Pramod Srivastava: The election result apart, both nda and the mahagathbandhan lobbed unprecedented amounts of uncivil and venomous verbal volleys on each other.
